


Errand Boy

by rohpsohpic



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Ambiguous Relationships, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, The Princess Bride References, is an ambiguous established relationship a thing because now it is
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-11
Updated: 2018-07-11
Packaged: 2019-06-08 15:55:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15246732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rohpsohpic/pseuds/rohpsohpic
Summary: Five times Jeonghan and Joshua were good errand boys to each other and one time they weren't.(Alternatively, Jeonghan and Joshua take turns exploiting each other because they care.)





	Errand Boy

1.

“Jeonghanjeonghanjeonghanjeonghanjeonghan!”

Jeonghan sticks his head out of his room, automatically looking at the bathroom door. There’s an exasperated smile on his face. “What?”

“Hand me a towel.”

Jeonghan lets out a purposefully exaggerated sigh, drawing it out so that it can be heard through the bathroom door even as he retreats into his bedroom. He returns barely a second later with a towel in hand, having obviously been prepared even before being called upon. Jeonghan knocks on the door. Wordlessly, it opens, and a hand reaches through the crack to grab the towel and disappear with a muffled “Thanks.” It’s a practiced routine that has Jeonghan rolling his eyes.

“Four years,” Jeonghan threatens amiably, “One of these days, I’m going to hide all the towels and let you track water all through the dorm.”

“I’d slip, and you’d have to buy me candy every day while I recovered from the fall.”

“I’ll send Jun. Your sweet tooth sounds like a personal problem.”

A dramatic gasp. “You wouldn’t.” A matching smile can be heard through the door. “You’re my errand boy. Five years.”

“Has it been five years already?” Jeonghan asks, shocked enough not to return to his room. On the other side of the door, there is a pleasant laugh. Jeonghan’s face melts back into a teasing smile. “Sounds like it’s about time for me to resign.”

“You wouldn’t,” the voice says again, lightly, but with no shortage of conviction.

Jeonghan sighs without ceasing to smile. He concedes, “I wouldn’t.”

 

 

“Not that I haven’t done it before, but why are we shopping for candy in the middle of the night again?” Jun asks, watching Jeonghan with some trepidation. Even after having spent several minutes inside the convenience store with no suspicious activity other than the pensive expression on Jeonghan’s face, Jun is still half-expecting him to drop the bag of gummies that he is eyeing and reveal that this is all part of some kind of elaborate prank. Any moment now. “You don’t even like candy,” Jun points out.

“That’s why I have you here as my consultant,” Jeonghan says, skimming over the nutrition label and weighing the bag in his hand. He holds it up to Jun as if Jun is here of his own volition instead of as the result of having been dragged out of bed and towed three blocks down. Skillfully redirecting the conversation, he asks, “How’s this brand?”

Jun blinks, wanting to rub his eyes. _It’s_ candy, _Jeonghan_.

His brain feels so much slower when he is this sleepy, but when he meets Jeonghan’s hopeful, uncertain eyes, he sighs and offers a supportive smile. “Don’t worry so much. He’ll love anything you pick.”

Jeonghan’s eyes widen briefly at Jun’s deduction, and Jun panics briefly, wondering if he has overstepped the bounds of his new night job as a candy consultant. Then Jeonghan’s face softens. He determinedly places the bag inside the basket that he has been making Jun carry, then grabs at least five others. “Good, because I’m going to pick everything they have to offer.”

Jun half-wants to cry by the time that they reach the checkout counter. The huge, heavy pyramid of candy that has been so delicately piled high over the basket immediately slides all over the table. The clerk, who looks only seconds away from sleep, charges them a ridiculous price and hands them a receipt without batting an eye. _Today’s the day_ , Jun thinks, bemoaning his sore arms as the basket is replaced by three bulging plastic bags. _I’m going to finally miss a comeback because my muscles were sacrificed for Jeonghan’s midnight candy run._

When they make it back to the dorm, Jun is all too eager to drop the plastic bags on the kitchen counter and fall on the couch in exhaustion. Jeonghan remains in the kitchen, pawing through the bags as quietly as possible. Jun watches with sleepy intrigue as Jeonghan, evidently satisfied with his inventory check, slowly balances the plastic bags in both hands and carries them to his room. Silence. Jeonghan reappears some time later, the candy nowhere in sight, and leans over the couch to check on Jun.

“Are you awake?”

Jun nods and cracks a smile. “As awake as anybody can be on a weeknight.”

Jeonghan laughs softly and motions for Jun to stand. “My bad. Now I need to wake you up one more time so that we can get you to bed.”

“The couch isn’t so bad,” Jun murmurs even as he pulls himself up and lets Jeonghan politely walk him back to his own room. “You could throw a blanket on me and call it a night. It’ll be my new nest. The other members won’t know what hit them.”

“You’re babbling, Jun,” Jeonghan whispers with amusement. His voice drops even quieter as they near the doorway. His teeth tug gently on his lip as if he is deliberating. This is as far as Jeonghan dares to go. When Jun reaches for the door, though, Jeonghan finally says, “Thanks. For letting me borrow you in the middle of the night and for carrying all the grocery bags back from the convenience store and for, uh, well, everything else about tonight. You’re a good dongsaeng.”

Despite the fact that Jun will probably lose both at least an hour of sleep as well as his title as the earliest waker in Seventeen come tomorrow morning, right now, he can’t begrudge Jeonghan for his impractical romantic gestures. He lingers briefly in the doorway to smile reassuringly at his hyung. “I meant what I said. He’ll love it.”

Jeonghan lets out a return smile, an earnest one that makes the dorm feel warm and welcoming around Jun. Despite everything, Jun thinks that it’s worth it, the midnight outing, especially if he gets to come back to this home away from home. The things they do for their fellow members. Before Jun pulls the bedroom door all the way shut, he hears Jeonghan add a quiet “Thanks for that, too.”

 

 

 

 

 

2.

“Joshuajoshuajoshua.”

Joshua steps through the doorway of the bedroom. An amused but unsurprised smile plays at his lips when he sees the Jeonghan-shaped form cocooned in bed. “What?” he indulges.

“Turn off the lights.”

For old times’ sake, Joshua does just that.

 

 

Later that night, he feels his way to bed along the wall and falls asleep to the sound of Jeonghan’s rhythmic breathing underneath all the other snores inside the dorm. Some things about sharing a room again aren’t so bad.

 

 

 

 

 

3.

“Yoon Jeonghan!”

His voice is giddy. He’s excited about something.

Jeonghan smirks a little, taking his time sauntering over. He wonders what his task is today. “What?”

He pops out around the corner carrying two empty water bottles and grinning ridiculously. He all but thrusts them into Jeonghan’s hands, which seem to have automatically reached out to receive them.

“Fill these with water,” he commands, making his voice sound smooth and regal the way he does when he’s reciting something, “Please.”

Jeonghan looks at him in confusion, but there’s nothing but smiles on Joshua’s face. He looks kind of mischievous and Jeonghan can only assume that it’s some reference he doesn’t get, but he raises the water bottles in a dutiful salute and says, “As you wish.”

Joshua’s eyes widen fractionally in surprise. If Jeonghan’s eyes lingered just a little longer before he turned to carry out his task, he might have seen the soft, awed smile that settles into Joshua’s features.

 

 

“Before we start answering the fans’ questions,” Seungcheol says, having pulled Jeonghan aside, “there’s something I want to clear up.”

If Seungcheol is squeezing this conversation in right before a fansign, then this does not bode well. Jeonghan tightens his grip on his water bottle. Jeonghan honestly thought that it would take until the end of the month at least for Seungcheol to notice that he had been slowly stealing and rehabilitating Seungcheol’s underwear between the couch cushions. Seungcheol must have lost his video game controller again and gone looking. Jeonghan knew he should have picked a more creative hiding spot.

“It’s about my underwear.”

There it is.

Jeonghan prepares for the worst. Seungcheol takes a second to collect himself, then says:

“Why did you hide candy inside my underwear drawer? I thought you didn’t like candy.”

Jeonghan blinks. The water bottle almost falls from his hand. Of all the things that could have been exposed, Jeonghan did not think that it would be this. With the quantity of underwear that Seungcheol constantly borrows from the other members, Jeonghan hadn’t even thought that Seungcheol knew he had an underwear drawer of his own, let alone checked it.

“That’s why I hid it in your drawer and not mine,” is all Jeonghan says in reply, dodging the question out of habit. He knows that even if he told Seungcheol his plan, Seungcheol would know better than to spoil it by now, but that doesn’t mean that Jeonghan is going to give it up so easily.

“Oh,” Seungcheol’s voice spells innocence. He looks at Jeonghan curiously. “Does this mean I can eat it?”

“No!” Jeonghan says. Seungcheol laughs, and Jeonghan knows that the question was a ruse, but he still can’t help but check, “You didn’t, right?”

“I didn’t,” Seungcheol assures him.

Seungcheol looks at Jeonghan expectantly, and Jeonghan realizes that this is his prompt for an explanation. Jeonghan lets out a long-suffering sigh, and Seungcheol only grins, recognizing one of Jeonghan’s plots when he sees one. “It’s not for you,” Jeonghan confirms.

Seungcheol gives him a happy, conspiratorial look, the kind that he gets when he knows something. _It’s for him, isn’t it_? It’s such a fond, knowing look that Jeonghan wrestles with the urge to elbow Seungcheol in the ribs. It’s hard not to know each other so well after having spent so much time together. Seungcheol’s grin is so wide as his arm comes to circle around Jeonghan’s shoulders, pulling the latter into his side in a half-hug. “You never change, Hannie.”

Jeonghan finally allows himself a little smile, too. There’s not much else to explain. In the distance, Joshua turns around and finds the two of them still standing in a position that half-resembles a headlock, and laughs, covering his mouth. His other hand is holding the water bottle that Jeonghan filled for him, Jeonghan notices with a little thrill. Joshua raises the water bottle in a toast, eyes crinkling in acknowledgment, and takes a swig out of it as he leaves to join the other members in the other part of the waiting room.

Jeonghan uncaps his own water bottle, but Seungcheol unexpectedly moves and the water misses his mouth and splashes on his nose. Jeonghan sputters, and Seungcheol giggles as he helps wipe it off.

“Don’t use your sleeve, Cheol-ah! Seungcheol!”

 

 

 

 

 

4.

The whirring sound stops as soon as Joshua enters the room.

“Shua!”

Joshua is already there at the sound of the voice, easing a blow-dryer out of the other man’s hand and into his own. He receives a grateful smile before he puts his hand on the other’s head and motions for him to face forward. Ever the model, the other man keeps his face carefully still as Joshua brushes back his bangs and turns the blow-dryer back on. Hot air blasts out. The whirring resumes more comfortably than before.

 

 

“None of the hyungs even have long hair anymore,” Chan grumbles after Joshua has returned from the bathroom. “Blow-drying shouldn’t take that long!”

Joshua teases Chan with an innocent look on his face. At a nearby table, Soonyoung snickers and pretends not to see, hiding his smile behind his fanned hand of Yu-Gi-Oh! cards. Chan swats Joshua away with an offended and incredulous smile, but Joshua only looks on affectionately. “You’ll understand when you’re older.”

“Old enough to be Jeonghan’s errand boy, you mean,” Mingyu teases back. He’s sitting forward with his elbows on his long legs, watching the Yu-Gi-Oh! battle. Joshua finds nothing but humor in those words. Seokmin makes his move, a devastatingly thorough attack on Soonyoung’s cards, but the latter falls strangely quiet while Joshua laughs.

“Hyung,” Soonyoung says, a note of concern lacing his voice, “about all these things that you make each other do . . . aren’t they kind of unromantic? Don’t you worry about the spark disappearing?”

Joshua’s smile slips away, but he isn’t frowning, only putting on his serious face. “Well, they may be unromantic actions, but they’re done with love. That counts for something, doesn’t it?”

Joshua lets his words sink in. Then his face erupts into a cheeky, earsplitting smile, and he uses the opportunity to sneak a glance at Soonyoung’s hand of Yu-Gi-Oh! cards while the latter is too busy thinking to react. Soonyoung squawks belatedly and nudges Joshua out of the way.

Seokmin wins that round by a landslide. Mingyu cheers so loudly that he shakes both tables.

 

 

 

 

 

5.

“Hannie . . . .”

Jeonghan doesn’t need the extra prompting, already having seen him crouching over his pedometer. He’s so focused that he barely looks up even when Jeonghan slides an arm around his back, getting a sense of déjà vu in the process. His hair tickles the side of Jeonghan’s face, but Jeonghan laughs for an entirely different reason when he sees Joshua manually shaking the pedometer around his ankle.

He knew it was coming, but it doesn’t make it any less funny.

“Are you going to help or what?” Joshua asks without looking up.

“Well, you’re the competition, aren’t you?” Jeonghan asks in his most nonchalant voice. He keeps his arm wrapped around Joshua, but he makes no move to help just yet. Maybe he’s scoping out the competition. Maybe he just likes watching a frenzied Joshua for once. It’s kind of cute.

It’s true: today, everyone in the dorm, even Joshua, is competition. The introduction of pedometers has given rise to a bloodbath. Whoever has the lowest step count has to get the groceries.

Joshua snorts in disbelief.

“It didn’t stop you on the broadcast.”

“Cheating in games is different when it’s nationally televised,” Jeonghan shrugs. “I don’t see anything bad about being the one getting the groceries.”

Joshua spares him a sideways glance if not for the sole purpose of showing Jeonghan the cheeky grin on his face before he says, “Even if you sacrifice your athletic pride in the process?”

Jeonghan sucks in a breath.

Seconds later, though he will later swear that he can’t remember how, Jeonghan winds up shaking both his pedometer and Joshua’s, one in each hand, while Joshua looks on with a smug look on his face. The things he does . . . .

 

 

They have the highest step counts by kilometers but are relegated to grocery duty anyway.

“It’s because we cheated,” Jeonghan says.

“It’s not because we cheated,” Joshua says.

They nudge each other, both harboring smiles.

Joshua starts heading out, but Jeonghan is stopped by Wonwoo, who glances between the two with calm but unreadable eyes. As Joshua goes to wait outside the dorm, Wonwoo waits until he is out of earshot before turning the full force of his quiet gaze on Jeonghan. Wonwoo raises his eyebrows delicately. “What’s this about candy?”

_Jun_ , Jeonghan swears without bite.

“It’s not for you,” he warns.

“I know,” Wonwoo says, unbothered. Wonwoo peeks at the door as if making sure that Joshua is still out of earshot. His face softens when he looks back at Jeonghan. “Don’t forget to give it to him. Jun keeps counting the days.”

“I’d never,” Jeonghan says.

A hint of a smile shows itself on Wonwoo’s face. “You wouldn’t,” he agrees knowingly. Then, almost as an afterthought, he adds, “Jun’s right, though. He’ll love it even if it’s stale.”

Jeonghan lets himself smile back, then grabs the keys and heads out to join Joshua, who has been leaning against the wall outside with his phone out but looks up unhurriedly as soon as Jeonghan comes out. Jeonghan’s smile suddenly feels new again.

“Let’s go,” Joshua says in his trademark English, pushing himself off the wall to fall in step with Jeonghan. After a long week of schedules, it’s nice to be able to go on a walk again, even if they’ll be carrying food for thirteen people on the way back. Jeonghan finds himself relaxing to the beat of Joshua’s quiet but steady company.

Their feet match evenly on the ground, step for step.

Jeonghan really doesn’t see anything bad about being the one getting the groceries.

 

 

 

 

 

+1

“Joshuji!”

Jeonghan greets Joshua as Joshua emerges from the store carrying the rest of their groceries. Joshua focuses on descending the exterior steps of the store, his head bowed and bangs falling into his eyes. He doesn’t seem to notice the drizzle until he meets Jeonghan at the bottom. Jeonghan can see the moment when he startles, eyes immediately going to look at the sky.

“It’s raining,” Joshua marvels, pointing out the obvious. It would be funny, Jeonghan thinks, if he wasn’t getting wet the longer it dragged on.

“I think it started while we were inside,” Jeonghan says, gesturing at the market with a bulging handful of grocery bags. He looks back at Joshua. “Where’s the umbrella?”

This jolts Joshua back to reality. “I thought it was your turn to bring the umbrella.”

“That was last time!”

“It didn’t rain last time,” Joshua says evenly, as if he’s reciting a passage from some sort of umbrella guidebook. “You’re supposed to keep bringing it until it rains, and then we switch.”

“What do I look like, your errand boy?” Jeonghan snaps, then immediately presses his mouth closed. Joshua’s eyes flash with surprised hurt. Jeonghan reins himself in, biting back his temper. Curtly, he says, “Let’s go before it gets any bigger,” and Joshua nods and obeys.

They walk in a tenser silence for a while, pulling the grocery bags tightly shut and keeping their heads lowered.

“I’m sorry,” Joshua says eventually, his eyes to the ground. Puddles are starting to form.

It would be funny, how miserable he looks in the rain, if Jeonghan wasn’t still sulking. The many grocery bags knock lightly against his skinny jeans. His jeans are starting to stick to his skin.

“We should have checked the weather,” Jeonghan says eventually, trying to ignore the sky as the rain becomes more insistent.

He adjusts his hold on the grocery bags to keep as much water out as possible, and Joshua quietly follows suit. He sneaks a peek at Joshua. Joshua’s bangs are plastered to his forehead. His face is morose. It would be funny, how much he resembles a drenched cat, if they weren’t still in the rain.

“I forgot my coat, too,” Joshua laments.

Jeonghan pauses, perplexed. He figured that they were in the middle of doing some sort of out-of-the-blue confessions thing, but this one just sounds random. “What?”

“My coat,” Joshua says, stopping when he realizes that Jeonghan has stopped. He turns around with the groceries still hanging limply from his hands in huge wet bushels. The rain is coming down harder. His eyes are still regretful, but they aren’t so miserable anymore. Jeonghan blinks back at him, not sure if he’s following. Plainly, Joshua says, “I would have offered it to you.”

Jeonghan blinks rainwater out of his eyes.

“It would have been funny,” Jeonghan says, “if we weren’t still in the rain together.”

“But we are still in the rain together.”

Joshua’s voice is so matter-of-fact, so Joshua, and yet it takes Jeonghan by surprise.

Jeonghan and Joshua look at each other, alone, stuck out in the rain, weighed down by a cartoonish amount of groceries, arguing over an umbrella that isn’t here with them . . .

And suddenly, it’s funny.

It’s so, so funny.

It doesn’t matter who drops their groceries first—“They’re all prepackaged, anyway,” Jeonghan finds himself murmuring as the bags splash to the ground, and Joshua is smiling, smiling so wide—because the next thing they know, they’re both bursting into laughter, splashing puddles, knocking into each other, pulling each other down in a water fight. The sky cracks open and the rain crashes down like the heaviest shower Jeonghan has ever taken, and they laugh, and laugh, and laugh.

“You know,” Jeonghan says, “there’s a stash of stale candy with your name on it back at the dorm.”

Joshua grins back.

 

 

Joshua stands outside with a black umbrella already open over his head and his free arm extended toward Jeonghan. He cracks a proud smile when he catches Jeonghan looking at him from the exterior steps. It’s the best thing that Jeonghan has seen all day.

Jeonghan ducks and walks briskly through the rain, Joshua meeting him halfway and easily slinging his arm around Jeonghan’s shoulders. He captures Jeonghan under the wide umbrella, spilling water on them both in the process, and Jeonghan can’t help but laugh with delight.

 

 

 

 

 

+

Seungcheol pulls the drawer in and out like he’s expecting it to reveal its secrets if he does it enough times. “How did Jeonghan fit so much candy in here? I thought I had more underwear than that . . .”

He sits back on his haunches.

“. . .”

He blinks his remarkably long-lashed eyes.

“. . .”

He realizes.

“. . . YOON JEONGHAN!”


End file.
